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AA-Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said Saturday that the Russian army had taken control of Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region, according to a statement by the Defense Ministry.
The announcement came when Shoygu met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin Palace.
A total of 1,500 soldiers from the Ukrainian army were killed in the fight for Avdiivka in the last 24 hours, noted Shoygu.
The Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine were illegally annexed by a decree signed by Putin on Sept. 30, 2022.
